HomebrewInstaller is newer apparently, and I’ve already looked quite a bit at Homebreware, so I’ll focus on the latter. Note: if you link to them, try to use the rel=”nofollow” attribute to avoid contributing to their PageRank.

The Homebreware site claims to provide software to - surprise - do everything that Wii homebrew applications currently do. I encourage you to read the site for yourself. I actually went ahead and bought it to have proof of what’s going on. What’s in the box? There is none. Their product is entirely delivered online, and includes two parts: a PDF guide and a software bundle. They also have an affiliate program which seems to be pretty active.

First, let’s look at the PDF guide. Content starts on page 3, which is a badly authored introduction. Then, on page 4, we find this (cropped pdf). Hmm, interesting resemblance to, say, this revision of the Twilight Hack page on Wiibrew. Of course, there is no attribution, no GFDL, no nothing. So much for their exclusive PDF guide. But wait, it gets better. The next page is about the Homebrew Channel. Sound familiar? The next two pages are about the Wiibrew SD Installer. I think i’ve heard this before. Then it teaches you how to warez games - using two posts ripped off from the AfterDawn forums (I won’t link to either of these, but suffice to say it’s an exact copy as well). And finally, the Mii Channel Update page? Totally original too. And all that’s left is the FAQ page (which you can also find on their site), and includes such gems as “No it will not void your warranty” (they get to decide that now?) and “No it can’t [brick your console]” (I guess they’re including HomebrewareBootMii now).

Moving on to the bundle part, you’ll find a main bundle, a separate source archive containing a bit of random Wii source code, and the Twilight Hack 0.1beta2 as a separate archive (this was a recent update, and they were too lazy to include it in the main bundle). Here’s the file listing for the bundle, and here’s the source archive. Of note is that the bundle archive includes several WADs copyrighted by Nintendo. Of course, HBC beta9 is included as well as TPHack 0.1beta1, and many popular Wii apps. The questionable warez-launching bits and pieces probably violate the DMCA anti-circumvention clause too (not that I agree with it).

Now, neither the Twilight Hack nor the Homebrew Channel (among others) are distributed under the GPL, GFDL, or any other GNU licenses (we’ve had a source release of TPHack for a while on the back burner, but it hasn’t happened yet), contrary to what HomebrewInstaller claims in their page footer (they also don’t seem to know how to spell our name, or that there are several “GNU licenses” and that the GFDL doesn’t apply to software anyway). In fact, they are distributed without any specific license (other than the “no warranty” stuff), which grants them automatic “all rights reserved” style copyright status (at least in all countries that fall under the Berne Convention, that is, practically the entire world). Therefore, redistribution, and especially sale, are forbidden. While we’re okay with free internet distribution by other parties (mirrors), any kind of sale is obviously crossing the line (and that includes any sale of a “guide” with “bundled” software).

I can only speak for the software that I’ve authored, but it’s clear that many other licenses are being violated here as well. If you are the author of anything in the archive and your copyright is being violated, I urge you to take action (tell the world, send them an e-mail, send them a DMCA takedown, whatever).

We’ve started to attempt to send the appropriate DMCA takedown notices to the providers involved, but I’d like to know if you have any suggestions, or if you know someone who could provide legal advice. It’s pretty annoying, as this is a slow process and meanwhile these guys are racking up the sales.

To the people behind this: what you’re doing is illegal, in case it wasn’t clear. We’re going to start firing DMCA notices until you stop. If you don’t stop now we’re going to start looking at a lawsuit.

Tags: Wii

4 RESPONSES SO FAR ↓
<b>1qq // Dec 4, 2008 at 3:27 pm</b>

The most ironic thing must be the little banner at the bottom of their page saying “page protected by COPYSCAPE do not copy”.

<b>2me.yahoo.com/a/lZq_bRk0x // Dec 4, 2008 at 4:01 pm</b>
Q: Can WIIhomebrew freeze (”brick”) my WII?
A: No it can`t. In the highly unlikey event that your device freezes, simply plug a Gamecube controller, when your device boots up press: up, down, left & right, all at the same time. This is highly unlikely.

hahaha, an impossible task. so they can say “keep trying”. geed

<b>3Homebreware // Dec 4, 2008 at 4:08 pm</b>

I’m the owner of HomebreWare.

I want to make things clear, I’m not selling the software, I’m selling the guide for unlocking the software.

The guide was written for me by a person who has had experience with unlocking Nintendo Wii Consoles, I didn’t write it myself since I don’t have much knowledge on the subject.

The sales page might have been incoherent, thus making people think that they’re buying a software. The sales page has been revised because of this, so that HxomebreWare isn’t mistaken as a software, and the original author of this software has been credited, stating that the product goes under the GNU License, for each separate file

In the new and revised guide, for each file recommended, it is stated that the file is under the GNU license, and it is free for download.

I simply hosted the files which were a total of 50mb on my server, because I didn’t want to waste the bandwidth of the author of the software for my commercial purpose. A Dozen people downloading the 50mb files, would be about 1 gb of bandwidth per day from my site, which sums to 30 gb per month. I didn’t want to waste 30gb monthly from someone for my purposes.

If hosting the files on my server is the issue I’ll just direct the users to the page of the original author.
As I mentioned I revised the thank you page and after each file on the thank you page, stating that it’s a GNU file.

Hope this cleared up some things for you.

You have to understand, there are people who are unable to find guides on the internet, and want everything dumbed down and simplified as much as possible, furthermore, they need constant customer support to get it working. That’s the kind of service we are offering, and it is worth it, there are numerous happy customers

<b>4marcan // Dec 4, 2008 at 4:24 pm</b>
@Homebreware:

1. The guide wasn’t “written for” you. There are two original content pages in the guide: the intro and the FAQ. Everything else is copied from webpages, as I clearly expose in this post, whether you know it or not (maybe whoever wrote it claimed to write it himself, but he didn’t). Go click on the links. That content is also copyrighted, and your PDF guide violates that copyright. In particular, since you are including content from WiiBrew, which is under GFDL, you must link back to the source, and place the ENTIRE PDF under the GFDL license. You also may not include any content in it that isn’t already under the GFDL or a compatible license.

2. The software isn’t “under the GNU license”. There’s a lot of software under a lot of licenses. Read the article. A large part do NOT grant you any sale rights. This includes the homebrew channel and the twilight hack. You may NOT sell neither the Twilight Hack, nor the Homebrew channel nor DVDX, nor any other software that we’ve written that isn’t under a license that allows for that. Hosting the files on your server and delivering them as part of your product is considered selling, whether you like it or not. As long as you host the files you are committing copyright infringement and we are filing DMCA takedown notices with the parties involved.

3. As for all the other software, you need to INDIVIDUALLY look at EACH application. As you clearly do not understand copyright, I suggest you have a copyright lawyer look at them as well. You may ONLY host the files and you may ONLY offer them with your product when the license SPECIFICALLY allows for that. If there is no license, then you may not redistribute the applications, period.

4. Your inclusion of information and applications on how to play “backups” violates the DMCA anti-circumvention clause.

Just to sum up: you appear to be selling TWO WHOLE PAGES of content, plus articles from the internet, plus applications from the internet. I question the usefulness of that. Heck, I’d go as far as to call it a blatant scam.

Hope this cleared up some things for you.

You have to understand that you do not make up the rules of copyright as you see fit. Go talk with a lawyer before claiming that what you’re doing is OK and legal.

<b>bootlegger // Dec 4, 2008 at 4:29 pm</b>

we could always DDOS his server if we band together

<b>6bushing // Dec 4, 2008 at 4:32 pm</b>

Actually, you can’t redistribute the Twilight Hack or the Homebrew Channel without infringing on copyright. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are selling it or “giving it away” or whatever you call it. You have no license to do so.

<b>7Homebreware // Dec 4, 2008 at 4:36 pm</b>

I’m not redistributing the twilight hack. What I’m providing is a guide on how to apply the twilight hack. And I’m not selling any of the software, as I said, I’m selling the instructions, the guide.

It’s on your server. You’re redistributing it. Same goes for the Homebrew Channel and the Twilight Hack and DVDX and everything else in your software bundle. Everything in there is being redistributed. And you’re selling a guide, most of which you didn’t write. That’s also infringement.

Homebreware // Dec 4, 2008 at 4:58 pm

As I already said, I’m crediting the original author and stating that it is a free software. If that’s your problem, than I’ll just send the visitors to the original authors site, so they can download it for there.

10TheDemon117 // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:06 pm

What annoys me most about this is the fact that the author is charging for a poorly written tutorial. Anyone with at least half a brain can at least find one of the millions of tutorials online that will work for their Wii.

11marcan // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:14 pm

@Homebreware
Regarding our software, it doesn’t matter who you credit or not. You may not host it. Period. Feel free to point people to hbc.hackmii.com (the official site). And you need to make it perfectly clear on your homepage that you’re selling a _guide_, not the software. And you aren’t giving away the software as a gift either.

You still have the issue with everyone else’s software - you’re violating a lot of licenses. And there’s the issue with the guide using ripped off articles. Read the post again. Your product has _MANY_ issues. Until you fix them all it’s still illegal. I suspect by the time you fix all the issues you won’t have much of a sellable product.

12wiisixtyfour // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:21 pm

He’s “selling the guide for unlocking the software.” A guide that is found on WiiBrew entirely free of charge. Who would buy it when the can take 2 seconds to google “Wii homebrew” and get to WiiBrew.org?

13Homebreware // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:24 pm

I have already instructed the person who wrote the guide to do a better homework and compile a better guide, to write in word by word by himself. It should be completed in the next 24 hours.

It will be made clear that the user isn’t buying the software, but the guide. And the files will be downloaded for the homepage of the author of the appropriate file.

All this should be completed in the next 24 hours.

The mistakes I made were made out of ignorance, not because I intended to do so.

14marcan // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:28 pm

@Homebreware:

As soon as I can confirm that your updated product doesn’t violate our licenses (and those of other wii homebrew authors) I’ll update the post.

15Mrkinator // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:32 pm

Man, this Homebreware crap gets better every day I read about it!

16HyperHacker // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:32 pm

I like how he didn’t even fix the grammar errors in the PDF.

17Homebreware // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:33 pm

I will leave this thread now, Going to post again in the next 24 hours, when the changes are going to be done.

18wiisixtyfour // Dec 4, 2008 at 5:42 pm

@HyperHacker
and he replaced “hack” with “unlock”.

“The Twilight Unlock” doesn’t sound as cool

19marcan // Dec 4, 2008 at 6:10 pm

@Homebreware:

Please shut down the site within 24 hours until the changes are done. Once they are done, I would like to see the new version before it goes live again.

20junk_man32 // Dec 4, 2008 at 6:43 pm

@Homebreware
So basically, this is what your doing for example.
Someone writes a story online and people can read it for free. Then another person comes copy it but changes some words and then sells it, basically what you do. There are guides like this everywhere “kid” and i quote kid cause you and your buddy need to do research and stop kidding around with this shit. You know who you are, a plagiarist! Go make your own software or own tutorial on something else man. I hope you stop selling your stupid guide. Tell your friend to go do something else. Just f*** off from the wii homebrew scene okay. Go do something else!

21sys_xbe // Dec 4, 2008 at 7:09 pm

reeeaaaaallly liking this “testimonial”

Darren
Finally a working kit, after using this kit, I especially enjoyed playing my favorite Super NES Game - Mario Brothers 3

Bayview, TX

22StinkFinGr // Dec 4, 2008 at 7:35 pm

I don’t know if you have seen this forum site where the douche selling this product is trying to recruit other DB’s to link to his page. Apparently the host sales site, ClickBank, won’t let him use any Nintendo or other marginally copyrighted materials. You may want to take your complaint directly to them.

John - California, USA
“Hi Guys, I was looking for something SAFE to unlock my WII with and i came across your site. I downloaded your product and followed your instructions, so easy! Now i`m happily playing my Gamecube games again, not to mention DVD`s! Thanks again.

Wii can already play gamecube games. haha

24Dr.Mario // Dec 4, 2008 at 8:10 pm

I don’t know how many people here use the Firefox add on WOT but enough people do that if that site earns a bad rating on WOT (which it should) it should detour a lot of people away from that site.

25arablizzard2413 // Dec 4, 2008 at 8:12 pm

“Originally priced at $55, HomebreWare can be purchased for a limited time for only $29.”

You’re kidding me right? No “guide” is ever worth $55, much less $29. They’ve got a paypal logo on their site; I seem to remember something about this being against Paypal’s rules… anyone want to verify? I’m pretty sure violating copyright falls under that category, we can probably report their account.

26Dr.Mario // Dec 4, 2008 at 8:15 pm

I didn’t read all the posts before I made mine so I’ll wait until the site is approved or disproved before rating it.

27ckrames1234 // Dec 4, 2008 at 8:16 pm

This is pretty intense, to see you guys battle it out. HomebreWare, I suggest what junk_man32 says. Go do something else. Once you legalize all this , no one will want to buy it. And its not that hard to realize that its free, i’m surprised that there are suckers out there to fall for this scam. If your whole career is scamming, your not very good at it, so get a real job. ?

P.S. How much money did you make? and im not familiar with licenses, but what happens to all the money when you are caught doing this illegally?

28w11h4x0r // Dec 4, 2008 at 8:16 pm

@marcan: what good will suing them do anyway?
if people are dumb enough to pay $29 for a guide, let them. even if he removes the apps from his server, it only means that he will still make the same amount of money while having to pay for less traffic. as it stands now, his site can be used by anyone (who finds the link) as a mirror for all of the apps he has tried to charge people for.

29Mobot // Dec 4, 2008 at 8:23 pm

@Homebreware

You’ve now taken the top spot on my list of worst holiday scams.

30vladus2000 // Dec 4, 2008 at 8:43 pm

These people know they are breaking laws do not let them fool you. They are laughing all the way to bank. Engaging them in discourse is futile, hit them where it hurts. Find out where they live, get a lawyer to threaten them with legal action (unfortunately this is not free). Try to get the site taken down, do whatever you can. If they are in a country where this is not useful, well, you guys are hackers I’m sure you can come up with something fun!

31ften // Dec 4, 2008 at 9:16 pm

I guess we can just watch these threads to see what happens with Homebreware;
<a href="http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1137320" target="_blank">http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1137320</a>
and
<a href="http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1135205" target="_blank">http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1135205</a> .
The thread StinkFinGr referenced is now locked.

32GR1T // Dec 4, 2008 at 9:31 pm

It’s people like this that make the Homebrew scene look bad. Heck they even make some of the pirates look bad.

First of all, no guide is ever worth money. A guide is just information, which is something that once developed, can be copied limitlessly, without any work or effort involved. Therefore in a monetary sense this information is worth nothing. Also note that they didn’t even develop any of this information themselves. That they would even think of selling this for any price at all, let alone $29, pisses me off beyond belief. Not only are they impeding progress, they are leeching off of the community, which is an internet sin.

33christian.remboldt // Dec 4, 2008 at 9:31 pm

Team Twiizer is the catalyst of wii homebrew scene. Without the TWPhack and HBC it would just be a few enthusiasts with mod chips. I hate to see these guys stealing your hard work. I hope all their servers melt.

34a // Dec 4, 2008 at 9:50 pm

First, it is sad to see that people try to profit off of the hard work of others, especially those who intend for that work to be used in a free manner.

It would be a minor annoyance, but I would suggest placing a TXT file in the Twilight Hack and Homebrew Channel files which states that those files, and most files run through it, are legally available for free. I would also even link to the great tutorials that are available on Wiibrew. In addition, I would consider placing a notice at the beginning of the Homebrew Channel installer, so it could not be easily removed.

I also agree with StinkFinGr and arablizzard2413, in that you should contact ClickBank and PayPal about this issue. I don’t know about ClickBank, but I am pretty sure that this is against PayPal’s rules. Good luck with sorting this out!

Have you herd this prat trying to worm his way out of it, Marcan well said told him /others straight
For a start, the download package is a bunch of bollox anyway, how did any ape fall for it? must be honest. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="wink2.gif" />

I really like the testimonals on the hombreware site, The funniest Crap i've heard all day
I hope someone can take care of this bullcrap

Testimonials

Erick
I was looking for a way to unlock my Wii so I can play backup games,I was looking into several methods to do this, the devices that allowed me to do this were priced over 100$, and were hard to install, there was also the risk that the warranty would be voided and my wii would be damaged in the process.

Jason
HomebreWare solved all my problems, with the simple software I was able to unlock my Wii in less than 15 minutes, without even touching any hardware components.

Darren
Finally a working kit, after using this kit, I especially enjoyed playing my favorite Super NES Game - Mario Brothers 3

Kobayashi
The kit was really simple to follow, it took me minimal effort to get it running. I had a few questions about this system and the technical support was very professional and answered them within 30 minutes.

their bundle has the BUL0.3b and the they still tell you to use the backup creator, fssssssshhh...!! what a bunch of crap, but as I always say, the fault is not on the sales man.....it is on the person who think that can have anything with money (knownledge in this case)...!!!!